Millennials have gotten royally screwed: That’s why they’re voting for Bernie Sanders

[n2doc]

by CONOR LYNCH

In recent years, it seems like a cottage industry of sorts has formed around bashing the Millennial generation as a bunch of narcissistic, lazy, entitled, coddled, uninformed digital junkies who just can’t deal with the real world. Though older generations have always complained about youngsters being in trouble, this animus towards Millennials seems rather unique, especially because, well, Millennials are rather unique.

They are the first generation to grow up in the digital era, and technology has advanced at breakneck speeds during their lifetimes. Older Millennials were just children when the internet was in its infancy, and have grown up with it, from AOL to Myspace to Facebook and the iPhone. It is the first generation that cannot imagine a time when there was no internet or GPS or cell phones to assist you in everyday life. (Certain Seinfeld episodes may even confuse younger Millennials, as they revolve around characters trying to find each other without cell phones or any other digital technologies.) The Millennial generation is also the generation that received those much-lamented participation trophies, and has apparently been so coddled by their parents and teachers and guidance counselors that they simply are “not ready for the real world,” which involves rejection and tough breaks.

With all that hate, it’s easy to forget sometimes that the Millennial generation is also the one that faces staggering levels of debt, a bleak job market (even when one does get a college degree, which has become ever more important), and the overall prospect of having a less prosperous future than one’s parents. While today’s 18 to 34 year olds are the best-educated generation in American history — 22.3 percent with a bachelor’s degree — they also have lower median earnings (inflation adjusted) than 18 to 34 year olds did in 1980, when just 15.7 percent had a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, becoming the best-educated generation has made Millennials the most indebted generation. Back in 1993, while the oldest Millennials were busy playing Sega Genesis, the average debt per borrower in the graduating class was under $10,000; by 2015, that number had more than tripled to about $35,000 — earning the class of 2015 the honor of being the most indebted ever.

Even worse, choosing to avoid higher education and all the debt that comes with it makes one’s future prospects that much worse. The unemployment rate for high school graduates aged 25 to 32, for example, is about three times that of those with bachelor degrees. The rate of high school graduates living in poverty is likewise high, at 21.8 percent, compared to 5.8 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree or more.

more

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/21/millennials_have_gotten_royally_screwed_thats_why_theyre_voting_for_bernie_sanders/

[Proserpina]

1. So, too, have their parents and grandparents been screwed

While the elders do their best to try to keep their families alive and healthy, the kids are doing the heavy lifting to make real change happen.

These kids are all right!

[Hiraeth]

2. That is my thought as well. Pretty much any generation from Boomers down have gotten screwed.

[merrily]

26. Which generation in US history hasn't been screwed? Maybe the Eisenhower years--because FDR

imposed a war tax to pay for World War II, which continued after the war ended, the war took out our two biggest competitors at the time, Germany and Japan, etc.

[Hiraeth]

29. point taken.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. And I hope we in teh older generations are sharing our history of how life used to be

and CAN be again, if everyone votes the right people in.

[Proserpina]

5. +1

[ViseGrip]

3. Go Millennials! You are the stars of this election cycle! You have come full circle from all who

were screwed so badly. Make sure you, and all of your friends V O T E!

You will be BIG, in transforming America back to what it should be!

[MisterP]

6. the younger generations (even X'ers) are at the end of a lot of trends and trajectories

they've seen the economy put in the hands of new-rich gentry and stockfloor yuppies
they're the ones giving up mental-health issues and dental checkups and surgeries over copays
they're the ones not even living with their parents, but their parents living with them--or, worse, have to live with people ragging on them; sex and marriage rates go down
they've had to rack up $50-100K in student debt to get past $45K a year (since they have two households to support)
they're the vets returning from Iraq, they've grown up with them and see them broken, hear the futility
they've read the headlines that they're not gonna be better off than their parents

plus of course Colbert

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. I think part of it is bad impressions seem to have more

impact than good impressions. One latte sipping, tattooed hipster who would rather live with their parents than take a job paying under $50K tends to drown out the young people who are working harder than they're playing.

[saidsimplesimon]

9. Bushwacker is a term of endearment, takes me back

to the bad old days.

I don't know any latte sipping, tattooed hipsters. Probably because tattoos are taboo in my family circle and a warm milk latte does not compare to real coffee.

The young people I know work 12 or more hours a day just to earn a chance for another run on the hamster wheel.

[Ms. Yertle]

8. Another perspective . . .

THEIR education. THEIR choice. THEIR debt. Saw an article the other day about some chick who borrowed to finance her education at her "dream" college, with her "dream" job of working in the wonderful world of non-profits. Low pay. No benefits. Fundraising for her own paycheck. Now, I ask you: How much thought did she put into THAT decision???

I even saw a post on this board yesterday lamenting, yes, lamenting the fact that millennials' parents are going to live too long and not leave the precious little snowflakes the inheritance to which they are entitled. Sheesh.

These kids have it a whole lot easier than the generation that grew up in the Great Depression, then had to spend their most productive years fighting WWII.

[Javaman]

10. and yet another perspective...

the WWII generation was 3 generations ago.

the current group of folks have absolutely no reference to that and live and exist today.

you're using of the WWII generation and comparing them to the people today, reeks of "when I was a kid, I had to walk to school both ways up hill, in a snow storm while carrying two 50 pound weights".

society was vastly different back then. More than 50 percent of the population worked on or lived on farms. Today, it's less than 5%.

comparing apples to cucumbers.

The people today have it very hard, I know from personal experience. It is very callous and unfair to compare the two generations.

[AlbertCat]

14. the WWII generation was 3 generations ago.

I know! That's my parents! They're both dead and I'll be 60 next year!

If you were 20 in 1945... that makes you 90 these days!

My generation grew up hearing how great things are for us because we didn't have to go thru the Depression or WWII.

Millennial have grown up being told how awful things are now compared to when their parents were kids.

I remember when Dubya was "selected", not elected... and we went to war with a country that wasn't a threat (all that ridiculous "preemptive strike" nonsense... still being touted by Hillary today for Syria) I said to myself "Shit! Life has been generally great but now the GOP has made it definitely suck for the rest of my life!" That's what Millennials hear and know, not that it's better than before, but worse!

[Javaman]

31. personally speaking, I think it's a lot worse...

back before WWII, the U.S. was becoming more progressive. Knowing that society needed various social reforms to help the poor, the improvised and the minority population.

It seems to me know, that we are regressing at a rapid rate.

The hard fought things we have today are being willfully rolled back by the repubs and some dems, for political advantage.

the right does it because they label it as waste (heartless fucks) the various dems that do it, is because they face right wing challenges in election years and have to outdo the right with stupidity.

Frankly, I honestly believe we are now just one crazy ass nut job prez away from the country tanking. I have no doubt that a Dem will be in office next election, but what worries me is 8 years from now.

[Scootaloo]

15. Yup, the silent and greatest generations busted their asses

And just as ften, had their asses busted too. Labor fights. Three wars. Internments, political purges, black civil rights, all these things they fought, and bled, and died for in order to leave their progeny something better.

So... what happened? Why are unions dead? Why are regulations stripped to less than a minimum? Why is our infrastructure crumbling? Why have wages of workers stagnated while bosses rake in profits by an order of magnitude? Why is so much of our nation an empty parking lot for a big box store that sells us poisonous plastic? Why do employees of American-based company in Mumbai have so much more job security than workers for the same company in Los Angeles? Who was it that stuck their thumbs up their asses about climate change for thirty years too damn long? Whose faces are those in Trump's virtual cross-burnings?

Did space aliens come down and cause all this wreckage while no one was looking? What? 'Cause it was already burning by the time my mom pushed me out, two years after she voted for Ronald fucking Reagan. Maybe that's hint!

Yup, I suppose we have it better than the generation that slogged through the depression and a world war. But we're manifestly worse-off than the Boomers or Gen X were. And there are people who are to blame for that.

[libdem4life]

16. Some chick? Not only is this sexist, but you're literally decades away from reality.

I lived in a regional place north of San Francisco...a thriving place called Wine Country. Do you know who the largest employer was in this region...shocked the heck out of me...Non-Profits as a whole. See, up there we help folks out of lot. And yes, to get a good job there or anywhere, one must have a college degree. That's why Bernie is trying to make it free...like K-12. And many put themselves deep into hock to get it.

I'm probably around your age...daughter of parents who went through the Depression, we were poor as church mice...my dad was a country Preacher. I went our West to make my fortune. So, I had to do the same thing. However, I was lucky...2 years of free Community College, scholarships and Student Loans for graduation Loans were repaid 20% automatically for every year I taught, so I paid them off in service (NDEA Loans)

Not so for my Millenial Son. But then you really know that.

[starroute]

18. That Depression/World War II generation had it easy from then on

They went to college on the GI Bill, got good jobs in the expanding economy, benefited from strong unions,k moved to the suburbs when housing was still affordable, had Medicare come along shortly before they needed it, and saw their incomes grow with little effort on their part during the boom years of the 1950s and 60s and early 70s.

In contrast, the Boomers graduated from high school or college during the tail end of that period -- and saw their wages flat-line from then on. Instead of starting out rough and seeing things get steadily better, they started out with the expectations of a constantly rising standard of living their parents had instilled in them and saw it all evaporate.

And the Millennials, of course, are starting out with the dregs and no prospect of improvement in a society whose leaders thing the only way to compete in global markets is to drive wages down to the level of Vietnamese peasants.

[xocet]

20. What a bitter attitude! All education should be a public good.

Based on what you have written, it would seem that families should be heavily charged for kindergarten, elementary and high school education, too. "THEIR education, THEIR choice, THEIR debt." Right?

No, this society is on the verge of being better than that and recognizing that university is a necessary extension to the high school system of education.

If you don't care for the costs of an educated society, maybe you should consider the "merits" of the "society" that ISIS "is establishing."

They don't seem to expend a lot of effort caring about education.

After all, just look to their antiquities research for an example of their dedication to education. (This line is sarcasm if it is not clear.)

[SheilaT]

11. In my lifetime, and I'm an early wave Boomer

(born in 1948) I've noticed that when each new generation enters the world of adults, they are criticized, called lazy and good for nothing, won't ever hold a candle to their elders and aren't even fit to polish those elders' shoes.

I've been known to call other adults on how they look down on the young kids, and of course the adults get all virtuous and are completely of the "Well *I* always worked hard and respected others" and so on and so forth.

I had the good fortune to take classes at a junior college quite steadily over a ten year period, when the GenXers were starting college and work. Sitting beside them I got enormous respect for them as a group, because I saw how hard they worked and for so very little.

Which reminds me, why does no one ever refer to GenX any more? Did they all mysteriously disappear?

[valerief]

13. I guess Gen Xers aren't as new and shiny as Millennials. nt

[libdem4life]

17. 1948 was a good year.

[SheilaT]

19. Yep.

It was a Very Good Year.

[Raster]

21. The 1.5% that controls this planet's economy and has profited HANDSOMELY works....

...very hard (or at least their PR people do), to promote generational strife and discord. The fact of the matter is that it isn't or wasn't this generation or that generation that fucked things up. It was very rich people using their vast wealth and influence to ensure they would KEEP THEIR VAST WEALTH and be able to bestow their vast wealth and influence on their progeny and other selected entities. And every time someone - anyone - posts some bullshit drivel about "this generation got screwed because that generation did or did not do this-or-that", we just make it easier for the 1.5% that have gotten richer and more powerful at the expense of the rest of us, to continue doing exactly what they are doing: fucking us all over.

When it comes to the uber wealthy and powerful, there is no such thing as boomers, Xers, millennials or other deliminators. This is only the HAVES and the haves not. Them and us.

[SheilaT]

22. The trashing of the younger generation has

been going on since the beginning of humanity. Over and over, throughout history, anywhere we have written records, the older generation complains that the younger generation is useless. That generational divide has nothing to do with who controls what. It's not a recent occurrence whatsoever.

[Raster]

24. Yes and no. Yes, it appears the "trashing" of the younger generation is not new phenomena...

...although I would certainly not go so far to say "everywhere we have written records." I agree the appearance of generational divide is not new. HOWEVER, now the context is "who fucked up the planet," "who did nothing about global warming," "who polluted the environment," "who is decimating the oceans," etc. No longer is it just anecdotal hyperbole about generation ineptitude or kvetching about generational responsibility. No, the ante has been upped with specific accusations about this country's fiscal solvency and destruction of the biosphere. We've crossed the line from petty inter-generational squabbling into downright generational hostility.

[SheilaT]

25. It goes back at least to the ancient Greeks.

Who themselves deforested their land.

Environmental degradation is nothing new, although recently it's become a global problem.

[Enthusiast]

12. Kicked and recommended!

[Babel_17]

23. The invisibles, the worker bees, are making a buzz

Our leadership isn't equipped to reach out to them. They have to get behind the ropes behind a recognized leader in order to be seen.

And they should bring their checkbooks, and get land lines. While they're at it, start paying for cable so they can hear the corporate media and be up to date on how reality has been spun. The economy has recovered, and underemployment/unemployment has been dealt with.

Get to work slackers*!

*slackers, in the generic sense, as a generation they are older than you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacker#Late_20th_century

[PatrickforO]

28. You make an important point. Campaigns have to reach the Millennials where

they are instead of asking them to do a bunch of what they will think is bullshit.

[PatrickforO]

27. I work with a bunch of Millennials and they are great.

I have great hope in them because they are bright, socially and environmentally conscious and willing to work hard if we can get around the butt time in chair thing and respect that they might use a device for work related tasks at 1 in the morning.

That said, nearly every millennial with whom I've spoken, maybe upwards of 90% likes Bernie. What we all need to do is help these kids realize there IS hope, their vote for Bernie DOES count, and the need to be hand walked if necessary to register with a serious explanation that if you don't vote in the primary or caucus for Bernie, then you WON'T be able to vote for him in the general election.

That's how it works, and we need to help them through what can be a stupid and mundane process.

[Babel_17]

30. They have a fantastic attitude, from what I've seen

Family, friends, life. That's what they trust and believe in. I suspect that they see our society as living a bit of a lie.

"What's good for me, isn't good for thee."